Marisa Garcia The European airport industry renewed its commitment to reducing airports’ impact on Climate change during the 27th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress in Paris, by announcing it was doubling its carbon neutrality target for 2030.
During the COP21 climate negotiations in December 2015, the membership of the European airport association ACI EUROPE committed to having 50 carbon neutral airports by 2030.
- The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has estimated that aviation’s total CO2 emissions account for 2% of global emissions’ impact on climate change. Of that figure, airports’ own operations only account for up to 5%.
Committed to Keeping Global Warming Below 2ºC
Augustin de Romanet, President of ACI EUROPE and President & CEO of Groupe ADP, who announced the new commitment to twice the number of CO2 neutral airports, said:
“Europe’s airports are fully behind the objective of keeping global warming well below 2°C and aiming to reach 1.5°C. For its part, the airport industry has already moved from words to actions a while ago, through the independent carbon management programme, Airport Carbon Accreditation. At the last count, of the 116 European airports that are certified under the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, 27 of them are now carbon neutral. This means that we are already more than half way to our initial commitment.”
He added: “So we thought we could do even better. And looking at how some have just stepped out from the Paris Agreement, we thought that we definitely needed to do better. So I am extremely proud today to announce that we are doubling our commitment – ACI EUROPE and the European airport industry are now committing to have 100 carbon neutral airports by 2030.”
The 27 European airports currently certified as carbon neutral are:
Aeroporti di Roma Rome Fiumicino IT FCO Aéroports de Lyon Lyon-Saint Exupéry FR LYS Athens International Airport Athens GR ATH Avinor Oslo NO OSL Avinor Trondheim NO TRD Eindhoven Airport Eindhoven NL EIN ICF Airports Antalya TR AYT London Gatwick London Gatwick UK LGW Manchester Airport Group East Midlands UK EMA Manchester Airport Group Manchester UK MAN Nice Cote D’Azur Airport Nice FR NCE SAVE S.p.A. Venice Marco Polo IT VCE Schiphol Group Amsterdam NL AMS SEA Milan Linate IT LIN SEA Milan Malpensa IT MXP Swedavia Are Ostersund SE OSD Swedavia Gothenburg SE GOT Swedavia Kiruna SE KRN Swedavia Lulea SE LLA Swedavia Malmo SE MMX Swedavia Ronneby SE RNB Swedavia Stockholm-Arlanda SE ARN Swedavia Stockholm-Bromma SE BMA Swedavia Umea SE UME Swedavia Visby SE VBY TAV Ankara TR ESB TAV Izmir TR ADB
Today’s announcement is supported by specific commitments by a further 26 airports in Europe, to become carbon neutral. The airports making these commitments are operated by the following companies:
Airport Carbon Accreditation certifies airports at 4 different levels of accreditation (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality).
It is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed and has already won praise from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Commission (EC).
Niclas Svenningsen, who heads the Climate Neutral Now initiative at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat commented:
“Less than two years ago here in Paris, 195 countries signed to Paris Agreement under the motto of ‘We can, We must, We will’. Today’s announcement by ACI EUROPE about its increased climate neutral ambition is very much in the same spirit and sets a great example for other industries and sectors to follow. We at UNFCCC welcome the continued efforts of the airport industry and support all the airports that are taking action to combat climate change.”
LATEST REDUCTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED
ACI EUROPE also released the latest CO2 reduction for the past year of certifications of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme in Europe: 154,351 tonnes of CO2 saved – equivalent to the CO2 emitted by 64,582 households over the course of a year.
With its 4 gradual levels, the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme has certified some 190 airports across the world in the past 12 months. Full details of the reduction achieved at Global level will be released in September this year.
de Romanet concluded: “For airports, carbon management is as much about being at the forefront of corporate and social responsibility as it is about business continuity. Climate change poses a significant risk to the airport industry** – changes in rainfall, temperature variations, sea-level rise, changes in wind patterns – all of these have potentially severe implications for our industry, for the wider air transport sector and for European connectivity.”
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